Epic conventions : from Gondibert to Paradise lost

Zámbóné Kocic Larisa: Epic conventions : from Gondibert to Paradise lost. (2018) [Online educational package (e-learning lesson/topic)]

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English title

Epic conventions : from Gondibert to Paradise lost

Abstract

This lesson will introduce the main features of the mid-seventeenth century English literary criticism (Restoration), and the emergence of neo-classical tradition relying on Aristotle, Horace, Cicero and Quintilian (and their appropriation by continental critics). It will focus on the function of the critic as that of deducing (and improving) “rules” of composition from the works of distinguished ancients to be followed by contemporary writers and used as grounds of judgement for discernible readers/critics. As these rules were prescribing the appropriate conventions of literary (mostly poetic) genres, the lessons will focus on these genres, the present one elaborating the epic. Topics will include: • the rise of classicism; the methods of Restoration critics: analytical (Aristotelian) and rhetorical (Horace); the application of the antique oratorical aspects of creation to composition of poetry; admiration of simplicity and propriety (decorum); • the main genres deduced from the classics and their hierarchical structuring; • the centrality of the epic in contemporary literary debates on heroic poem (Davenant, Hobbes, Cowley); the quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns • epic conventions • John Milton (1608-1674) and the emerging idea of Paradise Lost (1667).

English abstract

This lesson will introduce the main features of the mid-seventeenth century English literary criticism (Restoration), and the emergence of neo-classical tradition relying on Aristotle, Horace, Cicero and Quintilian (and their appropriation by continental critics). It will focus on the function of the critic as that of deducing (and improving) “rules” of composition from the works of distinguished ancients to be followed by contemporary writers and used as grounds of judgement for discernible readers/critics. As these rules were prescribing the appropriate conventions of literary (mostly poetic) genres, the lessons will focus on these genres, the present one elaborating the epic. Topics will include: • the rise of classicism; the methods of Restoration critics: analytical (Aristotelian) and rhetorical (Horace); the application of the antique oratorical aspects of creation to composition of poetry; admiration of simplicity and propriety (decorum); • the main genres deduced from the classics and their hierarchical structuring; • the centrality of the epic in contemporary literary debates on heroic poem (Davenant, Hobbes, Cowley); the quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns • epic conventions • John Milton (1608-1674) and the emerging idea of Paradise Lost (1667).

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